The fifth day of the first month of the tenth year of the Great Cause.

The carriage moved around on the snow, and this was a huge merchant team that continued north after leaving Yanmen Pass.

Although it is the first month, but the weather is still very cold, these merchants at this time out of the customs to the north, in fact, took a great risk, in case the weather is abnormal, and then encounter a snowstorm or other bad weather, the goods will be seriously lost, small things, lives may not be guaranteed.

There used to be countless caravans with a large number of people, with the dream of making a lot of money, at this time of year out of the customs to the north, since then there is no news, no one alive, no corpse in death.

However, although the risk is extremely high, the caravans that depart north during the first month of the year are constantly flowing every year.

Li Yin was also at the back of this caravan at this time, riding a yellow horse that was already a tall and divine horse, and walked forward slowly.

Li Yin went north on this trip, and he didn't bring anyone else, one person, one horse and one knife, and nothing else.

The reason why he traveled north with the caravan was to learn about this formidable adversary located in the northern steppes.

When Li Yin made this decision, whether it was Zhou An, Huang Junhan, or Zhang Liang, Liu Hong and others, they were all unanimously opposed, everyone said that if they wanted to understand the opponent in the north, they just sent Fu Ying and others to inquire about the information, why go in person?

Li Yin naturally has his reasons.

The Turkic people in the northern steppe, whether in the present or for a long time in the future, will be the mortal enemy of the Hedong region and even the entire Central Plains Dynasty, but Li Yin's own understanding of this great enemy has always been a few words from others, and he does not know too much.

Ordinary enemies do need to send some shrewd spies to investigate, but for the Turkic enemy, Li Yin felt that it was still necessary to personally go to the in-depth understanding, after all, the information obtained from other people's mouths would never be as profound as his own personal observation.

What's more, the major events in Yanmen County have been decided, and the next two months should be relatively calm, so Li Yin thought twice before leaving for the north.

This large caravan was actually composed of several merchants of varying numbers, and some of them were traveling alone, but there was one person of the highest prestige who acted as the leader and commanded the caravan in a unified manner.

Now the head of the caravan is called Zhao Lang, about fifty years old, calm, not smiling, always vigilantly staring at the surrounding environment, it is said that he has been out of the customs since he was thirteen or fourteen years old, and his experience can be described as extremely rich.

Since Zhao Lang became the leader of the caravan at the age of forty, he has rarely made any big mistakes, and the people who follow him have made money, so they are naturally convinced of him. As a leader, there has always been only one way to convince people, that is, to bring the big guy to make money.

The risk of going out of the customs is high, but the reward is also large.

Tea, cloth, pottery and other things are in short supply of people on the grassland, as long as you find the right tribe, it is not a problem to sell at a good price, and the people on the grassland have many good quality animal skins and other things, the price is low, but when it is sold in the Central Plains, the price is quite expensive.

Therefore, if you are lucky, you can turn over ordinary people when you come back from a trip. That's the only reason why this dangerous path is so appealing.

Zhao Lang's carriage was located in the middle of the caravan, and the caravan's carriage was unroofed, and the open space was full of goods except for the sitting people.

At this time, a middle-aged man beside Zhao Lang looked at Li Yin in the distance and asked, "Brother Zhao, who is that person, I have never seen it before?" ”

Zhao Lang said: "I don't know, I only know that he was introduced by Tian Futong Tian, it seems that the origin is not small, Tian Laosheng told me to take care of it, and I must not be neglected." ”

The middle-aged man said: "It turned out to be introduced by Master Tian, that identity is indeed unusual!" ”

At this time, it was almost noon, and Xu Kai, the head of the caravan's guard, suddenly rode to the side of Zhao Lang, and said in a low voice: "Master Zhao, we seem to be being targeted by the 'wolf'." Xu Kai said and stretched out his hand to the southwest.

Zhao Lang turned his head to look and saw that in the distance to the southwest, there were four or five horsemen and horses following the caravan from afar.

The wolf Xu Kai said was not a real wolf, but a horse bandit, but the horse bandit who was staring at the caravan was not much different from the wolf that was staring at the prey.

Zhao Lang said: "How long have you been following us like this?" ”

Xu Kai said with a worried face: "It's been more than an hour, and there have been a few changes in the middle, so they should be eyeing us." ”

Zhao Lang snorted, "Go and strengthen your vigilance, we are well equipped, and no horse bandit dares to touch it." ”

Xu Kai answered.

The caravan consisted of more than 900 merchants, and 450 guards, all of whom were professional in nature, and who had traveled north all the year round, with sufficient experience, and each of them was equipped with delicate bows and crossbows, etc., and was well-equipped, and was completely unafraid of the horse bandits in the vicinity.

However, after the caravan was concerned for another day, Zhao Lang's brows slowly furrowed, because he found that those "wolves" seemed to be a little unusual.

Now the men and horses hanging behind the caravan have more than 30 horses, according to Zhao Lang's previous experience, these people and horses sent to follow the caravan are generally four or five horses.

"Could it be that the other party is very manpowered? But when did such a big horse bandit appear? Zhao Lang was suspicious in his heart.

When night is approaching, the chief of the guard Xu Kai commanded the men and horses to set up camp, after leaving the Yanmen Pass, as long as they did not meet the grassland tribes, the caravan had to build a camp every night when they stayed overnight, of course, because of the manpower, the camp built naturally could not be compared with the army, it was very simple.

When it was completely dark, everyone was silently eating dry food to satisfy their hunger.

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves all around!

Everyone looked up and saw that the torches were bright not far away, and a large group of men and horses rushed towards the caravan camp, and roughly estimated that there were no less than two thousand horsemen.

"Enemy attack! The whole team is on alert! Xu Kai shouted, commanding the well-trained guards to guard the gate and prepare to fight the incoming enemy.

However, these horse bandits only shot a few arrows from a distance, and then retreated, just when Xu Kai and everyone were relieved, these horse bandits launched a charge again, and so on repeatedly, so that Xu Kai and others were startled, and there were people in the caravan with bad hearts, who couldn't help fainting under the stimulation of the horse bandits' back and forth.

"Don't be fooled, these bandits are trying to disturb our minds!" Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted loudly.

Zhao Lang, Xu Kai and the others looked at the person who spoke, and saw that the person was riding a divine horse and a yellow horse, which was the mysterious person in the caravan.

Li Yin rode to Zhao Lang's side, "Zhao Touren, I guess these horse bandits don't want to suffer too many casualties, so they don't dare to attack, so they use this tired tactic to interfere with us." ”

Zhao Lang said: "Then what do you say we should do now?" ”